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  • Is it acceptable to design my GLSurfaceView as a main control class?

    - by Omega
    I'm trying to structure a game I'm making in Android so that I have a sound, flexible design. Right now I'm looking at where I can tie my games rules engine and graphics engine together and what should be in between them. At a glance, I've been eying my implementation of GLSurfaceView, where various screen events are captured. My rationale would be to create an instance of my game engine and graphics engine here and receive events and state changes to trigger updates of either where applicable. Further to this, in the future, the GLSurfaceView implementation could also store stubs for players during a network game and implementations of computer opponents and dispatch them appropriately. Does this seem like a sensible design? Are there any kinds of improvements I can make? Thanks for any input!

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  • Performance implications of using a variable versus a magic number

    - by Nathan
    I'm often confused by this. I've always been taught to name numbers I use often using variables or constants, but if it reduces the efficiency of the program, should I still do it? Heres an example: private int CenterText(Font font, PrintPageEventArgs e, string text) { int recieptCenter = 125; int stringLength = Convert.ToInt32(e.Graphics.MeasureString(text, font)); return recieptCenter - stringLength / 2; } The above code is using named variables, but runs slower then this code: private int CenterText(Font font, PrintPageEventArgs e, string text) { return 125 - Convert.ToInt32(e.Graphics.MeasureString(text, font) / 2); } In this example, the difference in execution time is minimal, but what about in larger blocks of code?

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  • Speed of interpolation algorithms, C# and C++ working together.

    - by Kaminari
    Hello. I need fast implementation of popular interpolation algorithms. I figured it out that C# in such simple algorithms will be much slower than C++ so i think of writing some native code and using it in my C# GUI. First of all i run some tests and few operations on 1024x1024x3 matrix took 32ms in C# and 4ms in C++ and that's what i basicly need. Interpolation however is not a good word because i need them only for downscaling. But the question is: Will it be faster than C# methods in Drawing2D Image outputImage = new Bitmap(destWidth, destHeight, PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb); Graphics grPhoto = Graphics.FromImage(outputImage); grPhoto.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.*; //all of them grPhoto.DrawImage(bmp, new Rectangle(0, 0, destWidth, destHeight), Rectangle(0, 0, sourceWidth, sourceHeight), GraphicsUnit.Pixel); grPhoto.Dispose(); Some of these method run in 20ms and some in 80. Is there a way to do it faster?

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  • Creating a Linux Desktop Envoriment

    - by Alon
    Suppose I want to create my own desktop envoriment for Linux, without X. Like Google with the Android did. Where do I start? Is it actually a normal application that just draws stuff, and starts after the kernel boot? And how does it draw it? Using OpenGL or is there something more generic? And graphics drivers, how is it going? You should develop custom graphics drivers for your desktop or it comes with the Linux kernel? Note: It's for normal PCs and not embedded devices. Thanks.

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  • Expanded securityadmin

    - by user80652
    I'm aware that sysadmin is documented as the server role necessary for creating logins (SQL/Windows-integrated); nevertheless, I'm tasked to find out if there's any other server role (built-in or otherwise) that can be used. To be specific, I'm looking to setup one or two logins with access to create logins, create [database] users, assign users to [database] roles. Potentially reset passwords, but most of the logins are Windows-integrated and it's not necessary. Cannot have access to data at all, nor can these logins have rights to update tables nor create/update roles. Seems my only options so far are to set these 2 logins with securityadmin server role and for the specific databases, configure with db_securityadmin and db_accessadmin... but this configuration doesn't allow for creating logins.

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  • Nginx + Nagios : 502 Bad gateway

    - by MrROY
    I have a fully new install nagios, but I can't access to it. Here's my Nginx config: server{ listen 80; server_name 61.148.45.10; # blahblah # Nagios Monitoring location /nagios3/ { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:80; } } Nagios is installed step by step(From this Linode guide): sudo apt-get install -y nagios3 Then I try to visit http://ip-address/nagios3/, but it shows 502 bad gateway. How do I deal with this ? This is my /var/log/syslog: Oct 25 14:18:17 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;Disk Space;WARNING;SOFT;1;DISK WARNING - free space: /boot 43 MB (20% inode=99%): Oct 25 14:19:07 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;HTTP;WARNING;SOFT;1;HTTP WARNING: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden - 319 bytes in 0.000 second response time Oct 25 14:19:17 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;Disk Space;WARNING;SOFT;2;DISK WARNING - free space: /boot 43 MB (20% inode=99%): Oct 25 14:20:07 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;HTTP;WARNING;SOFT;2;HTTP WARNING: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden - 319 bytes in 0.000 second response time Oct 25 14:20:17 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;Disk Space;WARNING;SOFT;3;DISK WARNING - free space: /boot 43 MB (20% inode=99%): Oct 25 14:21:07 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;HTTP;WARNING;SOFT;3;HTTP WARNING: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden - 319 bytes in 0.000 second response time Oct 25 14:21:17 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;Disk Space;WARNING;HARD;4;DISK WARNING - free space: /boot 43 MB (20% inode=99%): Oct 25 14:21:17 my-server nagios3: SERVICE NOTIFICATION: root;localhost;Disk Space;WARNING;notify-service-by-email;DISK WARNING - free space: /boot 43 MB (20% inode=99%): Oct 25 14:21:17 my-server postfix/pickup[24474]: 4F89F394034C: uid=109 from=<nagios> Oct 25 14:21:17 my-server postfix/cleanup[27756]: 4F89F394034C: message-id=<20131025062117.4F89F394034C@my-server> Oct 25 14:21:17 my-server postfix/qmgr[24475]: 4F89F394034C: from=<nagios@[email protected]>, size=594, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Oct 25 14:21:17 my-server postfix/local[27758]: 4F89F394034C: to=<root@localhost>, relay=local, delay=0.15, delays=0.11/0/0/0.04, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered to mailbox) Oct 25 14:21:17 my-server postfix/qmgr[24475]: 4F89F394034C: removed Oct 25 14:22:07 my-server nagios3: SERVICE ALERT: localhost;HTTP;WARNING;HARD;4;HTTP WARNING: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden - 319 bytes in 0.000 second response time Oct 25 14:22:07 my-server nagios3: SERVICE NOTIFICATION: root;localhost;HTTP;WARNING;notify-service-by-email;HTTP WARNING: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden - 319 bytes in 0.000 second response time Oct 25 14:22:07 my-server postfix/pickup[24474]: 219CA3940381: uid=109 from=<nagios> Oct 25 14:22:07 my-server postfix/cleanup[27756]: 219CA3940381: message-id=<20131025062207.219CA3940381@my-server> Oct 25 14:22:07 my-server postfix/qmgr[24475]: 219CA3940381: from=<nagios@[email protected]>, size=605, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Oct 25 14:22:07 my-server postfix/local[27758]: 219CA3940381: to=<root@localhost>, relay=local, delay=0.12, delays=0.07/0/0/0.05, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered to mailbox) Oct 25 14:22:07 my-server postfix/qmgr[24475]: 219CA3940381: removed Oct 25 14:39:01 my-server CRON[28242]: (root) CMD ( [ -x /usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime ] && [ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && find /var/lib/php5/ -depth -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime) ! -execdir fuser -s {} 2>/dev/null \; -delete) And there're lot of 127.0.0.1 visit in nginx log, but I actually visit from a external ip: 127.0.0.1 - - [25/Oct/2013:14:21:02 +0800] "GET /nagios3/ HTTP/1.0" 502 575 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/3 0.0.1599.69 Safari/537.36" 127.0.0.1 - - [25/Oct/2013:14:21:02 +0800] "GET /nagios3/ HTTP/1.0" 502 575 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/3 0.0.1599.69 Safari/537.36" 127.0.0.1 - - [25/Oct/2013:14:21:02 +0800] "GET /nagios3/ HTTP/1.0" 502 575 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/3 0.0.1599.69 Safari/537.36"

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  • How do I determine if my controller is in IDE or AHCI mode in Linux?

    - by philcolbourn
    I have an old MacBook Pro 4,1 (early 2008) - but I suspect an answer would apply to many MacBook Pros. It has an Intel IDE/SATA controller (ICH8M/ICH8M-E). I have installed a patched MBR that is supposed to put my controller into AHCI mode. It does this by setting some controller port value that I don't understand. This seems to work as I get this from lspci: 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 03) Now most, perhaps all, sites that provide a solution (enabling AHCI) suggest that after a sleep/wake cycle that a controller will revert to IDE mode due to how Apple support Windows. They recommend disabling sleep. From author of patchedcode.bin I think Enabling AHCI for Windows on MacBooks NB: I do not have bootcamp installed and I do not have Windows installed. Is there a way to prove that my controller is in IDE or AHCI mode? Background Data Using patchedcode.bin MBR I get this in syslog: Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.860955] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: version 3.0 Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.861052] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.861117] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 3 ports 1.5 Gbps 0x1 impl SATA mode Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.861120] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf pm led clo pio slum part ccc ems Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.861130] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64 Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.880880] ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no) Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.880983] scsi2 : ahci Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.884552] scsi3 : ahci Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.886932] scsi4 : ahci Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.886998] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xdb504000 port 0xdb504100 irq 45 Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.887000] ata4: DUMMY Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 1.887002] ata5: DUMMY Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 2.204103] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 2.204656] ata3.00: ATA-8: FUJITSU MHY2200BH, 0081000D, max UDMA/100 Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 2.204662] ata3.00: 390721968 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 2.205324] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/100 Jun 12 22:33:22 max kernel: [ 2.205554] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA FUJITSU MHY2200B 0081 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 Using my original MBR I get this from syslog: Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.622861] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: version 2.13 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.622869] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: power state changed by ACPI to D0 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.622924] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: setting latency timer to 64 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.623339] scsi0 : ata_piix Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.623730] scsi1 : ata_piix Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.623765] ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x8108 ctl 0x811c bmdma 0x80e0 irq 21 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.623767] ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x8100 ctl 0x8118 bmdma 0x80e8 irq 21 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.623810] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.623811] P0 -- -- -- ] Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.623866] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.624241] scsi2 : ata_piix Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.624558] scsi3 : ata_piix Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.624862] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x80f8 ctl 0x8114 bmdma 0x8020 irq 18 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 0.624865] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x80f0 ctl 0x8110 bmdma 0x8028 irq 18 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 1.208879] ata3.00: ATA-8: FUJITSU MHY2200BH, 0081000D, max UDMA/100 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 1.208882] ata3.00: 390721968 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32) Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 1.208961] ata1.01: ATAPI: MATSHITA DVD+/-RW UJ-867S, 1.00, max UDMA/33 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 1.216186] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/100 Jun 13 18:07:13 max kernel: [ 1.224396] ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33

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  • Why do GPUs overheat?

    - by JAD
    About a year ago, I added a 9800GT (1 GB version) and a Corsair CX500 PSU to an HP M8000N computer. A few weeks ago, the HDD overheated and I decided to transfer the GPU & PSU to a new build, which consists of: i3 @ 3.3Ghz Gigabyte H61 Micro ATX Mobo 4GB RAM 500GB WD HDD DVD RW Drive Cooler Master Elite 430 Tower Once I had Win7 up and running, I installed all the essential drivers that came with the Gigabyte Mobo CD. However, whenever I tried installing the Graphics Media Accelerator driver, the computer would crash and enter an endless boot sequence on the next startup. I skipped installing this driver and installed the CD driver for the 9800GT, which by now is a year old. Everything was working fine, WEI rated my GPU at 6.6 graphics & aero performance. However, after updating my Nvidia drivers to the latest, the WEI dropped my rating to 3.3 for Aero, and 4.7 for graphics performance. Just to make sure that everything was ok, I ran Bad Company 2 on medium settings. The first few minutes ran just fine at a smooth framerate, so I dismissed this as Windows being Windows. About 6 hours later, I ran BC2 again. This time I averaged anywhere from 2-5 FPS. I checked the GPU temperature through GPU-Z, and it came back as 120C. The problem with this, is that the computer was on for six hours up to that point. Wouldn't the card have experienced a reactor core meltdown a lot sooner than that? Granted, the computer was "sleeping" some of the time, but still... The next day I took out a temperature gun and ran some tests. I would point the laser at a very specific area on the reverse side of the card (not the fan or "front"), and compare the temp reading with GPU-Z. After leaving the system on idle on idle for a few minutes, I ran BC2 twice. Here are the results: GPU-Z Reading / Temp Gun Reading / Time Null / 22.3°C / Comp is Off 53°C / 33.5°C / 1:49 78°C / 46°C / 1:53 - (First BC2 run; good framerate) 102°C / 64.6°C / 2:01 - (System is again on idle) 113°C / 64.8°C / 2:10 119°C / 71.8°C / 2:17 - (Second BC2 run; poor framerate) I should also mention that I also took a temp recording of another part of the GPU from 2:01-2:17. The temp in this area jumped from 75°C to 82.9°C in that time frame. This pretty much confirms that GPU-Z is reporting the temperature accurately, and the card is overheating. But I'd like to know why; the cars is doing nothing and still the temperature climbs at a steady rate. I thoroughly cleaned the GPU and PSU when I salvaged them from the old HP M8000N computer with a can of compressed air, dust cant be the issue. Similarly, the rest of the computer is brand new. I installed various Nvidia drivers, but no luck. It seems strange to me that a year-old card is suddenly failing on me; aren't they supposed to last at least two years? Could this be a driver issue? Is the motherboard faulty? Could the PSU be overfeeding the card on voltage? Neither case seems likely, as the CPU, RAM and otherwise the rest of the comp has worked flawlessly and has stayed well within respectable temp ranges (the i3 lingers around 50C, the HDD stays at 30C, so does the PSU). How can I pinpoint the issue?

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  • Bash can't start a programme that's there and has all the right permissions

    - by Rory
    This is a gentoo server. There's a programme prog that can't execute. (Yes the execute permission is set) About the file $ ls prog $ ./prog bash: ./prog: No such file or directory $ file prog prog: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped $ pwd /usr/local/bin $ /usr/local/bin/prog bash: /usr/local/bin/prog: No such file or directory $ less prog | head ELF Header: Magic: 7f 45 4c 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Class: ELF32 Data: 2's complement, little endian Version: 1 (current) OS/ABI: UNIX - System V ABI Version: 0 Type: EXEC (Executable file) Machine: Intel 80386 Version: 0x1 I have a fancy less, to show that it's an actual executable, here's some more data: $ xxd prog |head 0000000: 7f45 4c46 0101 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000 .ELF............ 0000010: 0200 0300 0100 0000 c092 0408 3400 0000 ............4... 0000020: 0401 0a00 0000 0000 3400 2000 0700 2800 ........4. ...(. 0000030: 2600 2300 0600 0000 3400 0000 3480 0408 &.#.....4...4... 0000040: 3480 0408 e000 0000 e000 0000 0500 0000 4............... 0000050: 0400 0000 0300 0000 1401 0000 1481 0408 ................ 0000060: 1481 0408 1300 0000 1300 0000 0400 0000 ................ 0000070: 0100 0000 0100 0000 0000 0000 0080 0408 ................ 0000080: 0080 0408 21f1 0500 21f1 0500 0500 0000 ....!...!....... 0000090: 0010 0000 0100 0000 40f1 0500 4081 0a08 ........@...@... and $ ls -l prog -rwxrwxr-x 1 1000 devs 725706 Aug 6 2007 prog $ ldd prog not a dynamic executable $ strace ./prog 1249403877.639076 execve("./prog", ["./prog"], [/* 27 vars */]) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) 1249403877.640645 dup(2) = 3 1249403877.640875 fcntl(3, F_GETFL) = 0x8002 (flags O_RDWR|O_LARGEFILE) 1249403877.641143 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 0), ...}) = 0 1249403877.641484 mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x2b3b8954a000 1249403877.641747 lseek(3, 0, SEEK_CUR) = -1 ESPIPE (Illegal seek) 1249403877.642045 write(3, "strace: exec: No such file or dir"..., 40strace: exec: No such file or directory ) = 40 1249403877.642324 close(3) = 0 1249403877.642531 munmap(0x2b3b8954a000, 4096) = 0 1249403877.642735 exit_group(1) = ? About the server FTR the server is a xen domU, and the programme is a closed source linux application. This VM is a copy of another VM that has the same root filesystem (including this programme), that works fine. I've tried all the above as root and same problem. Did I mention the root filesystem is mounted over NFS. However it's mounted 'defaults,nosuid', which should include execute. Also I am able to run many other programmes from that mounted drive /proc/cpuinfo: processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 4 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.00GHz stepping : 1 cpu MHz : 2992.692 cache size : 1024 KB fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 5 wp : yes flags : fpu tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl cid cx16 xtpr bogmips : 5989.55 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 128 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: Example of a file that I can run I can run other programmes on that mounted filesystem on that server. For example: $ ls -l ls -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 105576 Jul 25 17:14 ls $ file ls ls: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped $ ./ls attr cat cut echo getfacl ln more ... (you get the idea) ... rmdir sort tty $ less ls | head ELF Header: Magic: 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Class: ELF64 Data: 2's complement, little endian Version: 1 (current) OS/ABI: UNIX - System V ABI Version: 0 Type: EXEC (Executable file) Machine: Advanced Micro Devices X86-64 Version: 0x1

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  • Xen kernel can't see 2 disks of 6 of 1TB, does it have a limitation?

    - by PartySoft
    Linux gentoo-xen 2.6.18-xen-r12 #3 SMP Tue Oct 5 09:28:53 PDT 2010 x86_64 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5506 @ 2.13GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux I have 6 disks of 1 TB and i can't see all of them only 4, can anyone give me an ideea what can i do ? Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on rootfs 886G 4.4G 836G 1% / /dev/sda3 886G 4.4G 836G 1% / rc-svcdir 1.0M 44K 980K 5% /lib64/rc/init.d shm 7.9G 0 7.9G 0% /dev/shm /dev/sdb1 917G 200M 871G 1% /home2 /dev/sdc1 917G 200M 871G 1% /home3 /dev/sdd1 917G 200M 871G 1% /home4 The hardware is Dual xeon E5506 processors on a supermicro X8DTL mobo 4.346585] ata3.00: ATA-8, max UDMA/133, 1953525168 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32) [ 4.346588] ata3.00: ata3: dev 0 multi count 16 [ 4.352861] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133 [ 4.352867] scsi3 : ata_piix [ 4.352875] PM: Adding info for No Bus:host3 [ 4.510584] ata4.00: ATA-8, max UDMA/133, 1953525168 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32) [ 4.510587] ata4.00: ata4: dev 0 multi count 16 [ 4.516848] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133 [ 4.516861] PM: Adding info for No Bus:target2:0:0 [ 4.516905] Vendor: ATA Model: SAMSUNG HD103SJ Rev: 1AJ1 [ 4.516910] Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 [ 4.516920] PM: Adding info for scsi:2:0:0:0 [ 4.517452] SCSI device sde: 1953525168 512-byte hdwr sectors (1000205 MB) [ 4.517460] sde: Write Protect is off [ 4.517461] sde: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 [ 4.517478] SCSI device sde: drive cache: write back [ 4.517514] SCSI device sde: 1953525168 512-byte hdwr sectors (1000205 MB) [ 4.517521] sde: Write Protect is off [ 4.517522] sde: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 [ 4.517532] SCSI device sde: drive cache: write back [ 4.517534] sde: sde1 [ 4.524551] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sde [ 4.524855] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0 [ 4.524874] PM: Adding info for No Bus:target3:0:0 [ 4.524928] Vendor: ATA Model: SAMSUNG HD103SJ Rev: 1AJ1 [ 4.524933] Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 [ 4.524946] PM: Adding info for scsi:3:0:0:0 [ 4.525216] SCSI device sdf: 1953525168 512-byte hdwr sectors (1000205 MB) [ 4.525227] sdf: Write Protect is off [ 4.525228] sdf: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 [ 4.525242] SCSI device sdf: drive cache: write back [ 4.525280] SCSI device sdf: 1953525168 512-byte hdwr sectors (1000205 MB) [ 4.525286] sdf: Write Protect is off [ 4.525289] sdf: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 [ 4.525301] SCSI device sdf: drive cache: write back [ 4.525302] sdf: sdf1 [ 4.532691] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdf [ 4.533010] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0 [ 4.977669] scsi: <fdomain> Detection failed (no card) [ 5.030479] GDT-HA: Storage RAID Controller Driver. Version: 3.05 [ 5.030635] GDT-HA: Found 0 PCI Storage RAID Controllers [ 5.372350] Fusion MPT base driver 3.04.01 [ 5.372358] Copyright (c) 1999-2005 LSI Logic Corporation [ 5.579176] Fusion MPT SPI Host driver 3.04.01 [ 5.881777] ieee1394: Initialized config rom entry `ip1394' [ 6.166745] ieee1394: sbp2: Driver forced to serialize I/O (serialize_io=1) [ 6.166748] ieee1394: sbp2: Try serialize_io=0 for better performance [ 6.428866] md: md driver 0.90.3 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27 [ 6.428872] md: bitmap version 4.39 [ 6.431518] md: raid0 personality registered for level 0 [ 6.495979] md: raid1 personality registered for level 1 [ 6.570270] raid5: automatically using best checksumming function: generic_sse [ 6.575523] generic_sse: 6608.000 MB/sec [ 6.575526] raid5: using function: generic_sse (6608.000 MB/sec) [ 6.596226] raid6: int64x1 1835 MB/s [ 6.613231] raid6: int64x2 1773 MB/s [ 6.630256] raid6: int64x4 1675 MB/s [ 6.647296] raid6: int64x8 1027 MB/s [ 6.664267] raid6: sse2x1 3578 MB/s [ 6.681268] raid6: sse2x2 4207 MB/s [ 6.698280] raid6: sse2x4 4625 MB/s [ 6.698281] raid6: using algorithm sse2x4 (4625 MB/s) [ 6.698285] md: raid6 personality registered for level 6 [ 6.698286] md: raid5 personality registered for level 5 [ 6.698288] md: raid4 personality registered for level 4 [ 6.781090] md: raid10 personality registered for level 10 [ 7.007043] Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 7.1.9-k4 [ 7.007046] Copyright (c) 1999-2006 Intel Corporation. [ 9.229465] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds [ 9.229476] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

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  • Windows 8.1 Update 1 Disk Usage 100%

    - by Gookjin Jeong
    Background Information / Computer Specs I have a 14-inch Samsung Series 5 Ultra. Core i5 CPU, 750GB HDD, 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4000. I've had the computer for about 1.5 years with no major problems. Problem The issue appeared at the beginning of April this year, when I updated the OS to Windows 8.1 Update 1 (not from 8 to 8.1). After being on continually (except for at night, when I put it on sleep mode) for about 48 hours, the disk usage as seen by Task Manager hits 100%. When this happens, everything from opening/closing applications to typing and even bringing up the start screen by pressing the Windows key becomes extremely slow. The only way to make the disk usage decrease is to restart the computer. Then the problem repeats. I've used my current laptop (as well as my previous laptops) this way -- putting it on sleep mode at night and restarting it only when Windows needs to install updates -- for a long time. So I know the 100% disk usage is not due to the way I use the computer. The thing that causes the spike varies. Sometimes it's System, sometimes it's one of the various applications I installed (e.g. Chrome, Evernote, Spotify, Wunderlist, iTunes, etc.), and sometimes it's Antimalware Service Executable, etc. Tried Solutions I think I tried almost every solution out there for this problem: Running the check disk command (chkdsk /b /f /v /scan c:) from Admin Command Prompt Running Windows Memory Diagnostic Disabling Superfetch and Windows Search from services.msc Running "Fix problems with Windows Update" from Control Panel -- Troubleshooting Updating and rolling back the graphics driver (Intel HD 4000) Disabling "Use hardware acceleration when available" from Chrome settings Disabling Intel Rapid Storage Technology Running the SFC /SCANNOW command as recommended here Running a quick scan & a full scan from Windows Defender (no threats found) Taking the hard drive out and putting it back Refreshing the computer, from the Update and recovery -- Recovery option in Windows settings NONE of the above worked for me. I was about to give up but then noticed that one of the main culprits of the disk usage spike, as shown in the "Disk Activity" section of the Resource Monitor, was C:\System (pagefile.sys). I googled around and found that one of the recommended solutions was to disable pagefile. I then went to **Control Panel -- System and Security -- System -- Advanced system settings -- Advanced tab -- Performance settings -- Advanced tab -- "Change" under Virtual memory and discovered that the number for "Currently allocated" at the bottom was 1280MB, although the number for "Recommended" was 4533MB. I immediately changed it to 4533MB and checked my family members' computers to see what the numbers were like. All of theirs had a currently allocated space that was only slightly smaller than the recommended space. See screenshot below: This might fix the problem. I'll have to wait a couple more days.But if it doesn't, what in the world should I do next? I'm guessing the hard drive isn't failing because This computer is less than 2 years old; and Speccy says that the status of the HDD is good. Update 5/27/2014 The "4533MB" solution did not work. I had to reboot the computer about 30 minutes ago because the disk usage again hit 100%. When I opened Resource Monitor the C:\System (pagefile.sys) again was shown to be the culprit. I have now disabled pagefile entirely via the same window shown above in the screenshot. The number for "currently allocated" is now 0MB. Will update again in a couple days, or if the problem occurs again, whichever comes sooner.

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  • The Oracle Enterprise Linux Software and Hardware Ecosystem

    - by sergio.leunissen
    It's been nearly four years since we launched the Unbreakable Linux support program and with it the free Oracle Enterprise Linux software. Since then, we've built up an extensive ecosystem of hardware and software partners. Oracle works directly with these vendors to ensure joint customers can run Oracle Enterprise Linux. As Oracle Enterprise Linux is fully--both source and binary--compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), there is minimal work involved for software and hardware vendors to test their products with it. We develop our software on Oracle Enterprise Linux and perform full certification testing on Oracle Enterprise Linux as well. Due to the compatibility between Oracle Enterprise Linux and RHEL, Oracle also certifies its software for use on RHEL, without any additional testing. Oracle Enterprise Linux tracks RHEL by publishing freely downloadable installation media on edelivery.oracle.com/linux and updates, bug fixes and security errata on Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). At the same time, Oracle's Linux kernel team is shaping the future of enterprise Linux distributions by developing technologies and features that matter to customers who deploy Linux in the data center, including file systems, memory management, high performance computing, data integrity and virtualization. All this work is contributed to the Linux and Xen communities. The list below is a sample of the partners who have certified their products with Oracle Enterprise Linux. If you're interested in certifying your software or hardware with Oracle Enterprise Linux, please contact us via [email protected] Chip Manufacturers Intel, Intel Enabled Server Acceleration Alliance AMD Server vendors Cisco Unified Computing System Dawning Dell Egenera Fujitsu HP Huawei IBM NEC Sun/Oracle Storage Systems, Volume Management and File Systems 3Par Compellent EMC VPLEX FalconStor Fusion-io Hitachi Data Systems HP Storage Array Systems Lustre Network Appliance OCFS2 PillarData Symantec Veritas Storage Foundation Networking: Switches, Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), InfiniBand Brocade Emulex Mellanox QLogic Voltaire SOA and Middleware ActiveState ActivePerl, ActivePython Tibco Zend Backup, Recovery & Replication Arkeia Network Backup Suite BakBone NetVault CommVault Simpana 8 EMC Networker, Replication Manager FalconStor Continuous Data Protector HP Data Protector NetApp Snapmanager Quest LiteSpeed Engine Steeleye Data Replication, Disaster Recovery Symantec NetBackup, Veritas Volume Replicator, Symantec Backup Exec Zmanda Amanda Enterprise Data Center Automation BMC CA Unicenter HP Server Automation (formerly Opsware), System Management Homepage Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Quest Vizioncore vFoglight Pro TeamQuest Manager Clustering & High Availability FUJITSU x10sure NEC Express Cluster X Steeleye Lifekeeper Symantec Cluster Server Univa UniCluster Virtualization Platforms and Cloud Providers Amazon EC2 Citrix XenServer Rackspace Cloud VirtualBox VMWare ESX Security Management ArcSight: Enterprise Security Manager, Logger CA Access Control Centrify Suite Ecora Auditor FoxT Manager Likewise: Unix Account Management Lumension Endpoint Management and Security Suite QualysGuard Suite Quest Privilege Manager McAfee Application Control, Change ControlIntegrity Monitor, Integrity Control, PCI Pro Solidcore S3 Symantec Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Tripwire Trusted Computer Solutions

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  • Integration of WordPress With WordPress bbPress

    bbPress is a powerful and fully featured forum software that can be integrated with blogging tools like WordPress. A first glance at the software, gives the impression that it is simple and devoid of any complicated structure, but one has to use it in order, to believe that it is a very powerful tool.

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  • SQL Server 2008 uses half the CPU’s

    - by ACALVETT
    I recently got my hands on a couple of 4 socket servers with Intel E7-4870's (10 cores per cpu) and with hyper threading enabled that gave me 80 logical CPU's. The server has Windows 2008 R2 SP1 along with SQL 2008 (Currently we can not deploy SQL 2008 R2 for the application being hosted). When SQL Server started I noticed only 2 NUMA nodes were configured and 40 logical cores where there should have been 4 NUMA nodes and 80 logical cores (see below). The problem is caused by that fact that...(read more)

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  • WebCenter 11g (11.1.1.2) Certified with E-Business Suite Release 12

    - by Steven Chan
    Oracle WebCenter Suite is an integrated suite of products used to create social applications, enterprise portals, communities, composite applications, and Internet or intranet Web sites on a standards-based, service-oriented architecture (SOA).WebCenter 11g includes a multi-channel portal framework and a suite of horizontal Enterprise 2.0 applications which provide content, presence, and social networking capabilities.WebCenter 11g (11.1.1.2) is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.  For installation and configuration documentation, see:Using WebCenter 11.1.1 with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 1074345.1)

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  • Build an iPhone 5 Charging Dock for $1 [DIY Project Video]

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you experiencing frustration since no one has built and released an official charging dock for the iPhone 5 yet? Then this quick little DIY charging dock project may be the perfect solution to your problem and serve as a good ‘hold-over’ until a factory version is released. Build an iPhone 5 dock for $1 [via There I Fixed It - Cheezburger Network] 8 Deadly Commands You Should Never Run on Linux 14 Special Google Searches That Show Instant Answers How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates

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  • "Parallel Programming Talk" show

    Over at the Intel Software Network Aaron Tersteeg runs a "Parallel Programming Talk" audio show on which I was invited as a guest (for the 55th episode) to talk about Microsoft's parallelism offerings in Visual Studio 2010. The call started at 7:45AM, so if my voice sounds croaky to you, now you know why ;)Check out the 20-minute chat (and related hyperlinks) on Aaron's blog. Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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  • Demo of an Early Beta of Firefox OS Running on a ZTE Developer Phone [Video]

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you curious about Mozilla’s new mobile OS platform? Then here is your chance to see an early beta of Firefox OS in action. This video shows the OS’s built-in web browser, phone dialer, camera, and gallery image viewer running on a developer phone from ZTE. Firefox OS Demo (09-06-12) [via The H Open] How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using?

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  • ADNOC talks about 50x increase in performance

    - by KLaker
    If you are still wondering about how Exadata can revolutionise your business then I would recommend watching this great video which was recorded at this year's OpenWorld. First a little background...The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for Distribution (ADNOC) is an integrated energy company that was founded in 1973. ADNOC Distribution markets and distributes petroleum products and services within the United Arab Emirates and internationally. As one of the largest and most innovative government-owned petroleum companies in the Arab Gulf, ADNOC Distribution is renowned and respected for the exceptional quality and reliability of its products and services. Its five corporate divisions include more than 200 filling stations (a number that is growing at 8% annually), more than 150 convenience stores, 10 vehicle inspection stations, as well as wholesale and retail sales of bulk fuel, gas, oil, diesel, and lubricants. ADNOC selected Oracle Exadata Database Machine after extensive research because it provided them with a single platform that can run mixed workloads in a single unified machine: "We chose Oracle Exadata Database Machine because it.offered a fully integrated and highly engineered system that was ready to deploy. With our infrastructure running all the same technology, we can operate any type of Oracle Database without restrictions and be prepared for business growth," said Ali Abdul Aziz Al-Ali, IT division manager, ADNOC Distribution. ".....we could consolidate our transaction processing and business intelligence onto one platform. Competing solutions are just not capable of doing that." - Awad Ahmed Ali El-Sidiq, Senior Database Administrator, ADNOC Distribution In this new video Awad Ahmen Ali El Sidddig, Senior DBA at ADNOC, talks about the impact that Exadata has had on his team and the whole business. ADNOC is using our engineered systems to drive and manage all their workloads: from transaction systems to payments system to data warehouse to BI environment. A true Disk-to-Dashboard revolution using Engineered Systems. This engineered approach is delivering 50x improvement in performance with one queries running 100x faster! The IT has even revolutionised some of their data warehouse related processes with the help of Exadata and now jobs that were taking over 4 hours now run in a few minutes.  To watch the video click on the image below which will take you to our Oracle YouTube page: (if the above link does not work, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcRpxc6u5Ic) Now that queries are running 100x faster and jobs are completing in minutes not hours, what is next for the IT team at ADNOC? Like many of our customers ADNOC is now looking to take advantage of big data to help them better align their business operations with customer behaviour and customer insights. To help deliver this next level of insight the IT team is looking at the new features in Oracle Database 12c such as the new in-memory feature to deliver even more performance gains.  The great news is that Awad Ahmen Ali El Sidddig was awarded DBA of the Year - EMEA within our Data Warehouse Global Leaders programme and you can see the badge for this award pop-up at the start of video. Well done to everyone at ADNOC and thanks for spending the time with us at OOW to create this great video.

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  • Interesting articles and blogs on SPARC T4

    - by mv
    Interesting articles and blogs on SPARC T4 processor   I have consolidated all the interesting information I could get on SPARC T4 processor and its hardware cryptographic capabilities.  Hope its useful. 1. Advantages of SPARC T4 processor  Most important points in this T4 announcement are : "The SPARC T4 processor was designed from the ground up for high speed security and has a cryptographic stream processing unit (SPU) integrated directly into each processor core. These accelerators support 16 industry standard security ciphers and enable high speed encryption at rates 3 to 5 times that of competing processors. By integrating encryption capabilities directly inside the instruction pipeline, the SPARC T4 processor eliminates the performance and cost barriers typically associated with secure computing and makes it possible to deliver high security levels without impacting the user experience." Data Sheet has more details on these  : "New on-chip Encryption Instruction Accelerators with direct non-privileged support for 16 industry-standard cryptographic algorithms plus random number generation in each of the eight cores: AES, Camellia, CRC32c, DES, 3DES, DH, DSA, ECC, Kasumi, MD5, RSA, SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512" I ran "isainfo -v" command on Solaris 11 Sparc T4-1 system. It shows the new instructions as expected  : $ isainfo -v 64-bit sparcv9 applications crc32c cbcond pause mont mpmul sha512 sha256 sha1 md5 camellia kasumi des aes ima hpc vis3 fmaf asi_blk_init vis2 vis popc 32-bit sparc applications crc32c cbcond pause mont mpmul sha512 sha256 sha1 md5 camellia kasumi des aes ima hpc vis3 fmaf asi_blk_init vis2 vis popc v8plus div32 mul32  2.  Dan Anderson's Blog have some interesting points about how these can be used : "New T4 crypto instructions include: aes_kexpand0, aes_kexpand1, aes_kexpand2,         aes_eround01, aes_eround23, aes_eround01_l, aes_eround_23_l, aes_dround01, aes_dround23, aes_dround01_l, aes_dround_23_l.       Having SPARC T4 hardware crypto instructions is all well and good, but how do we access it ?      The software is available with Solaris 11 and is used automatically if you are running Solaris a SPARC T4.  It is used internally in the kernel through kernel crypto modules.  It is available in user space through the PKCS#11 library." 3.   Dans' Blog on Where's the Crypto Libraries? Although this was written in 2009 but still is very useful  "Here's a brief tour of the major crypto libraries shown in the digraph:   The libpkcs11 library contains the PKCS#11 API (C_\*() functions, such as C_Initialize()). That in turn calls library pkcs11_softtoken or pkcs11_kernel, for userland or kernel crypto providers. The latter is used mostly for hardware-assisted cryptography (such as n2cp for Niagara2 SPARC processors), as that is performed more efficiently in kernel space with the "kCF" module (Kernel Crypto Framework). Additionally, for Solaris 10, strong crypto algorithms were split off in separate libraries, pkcs11_softtoken_extra libcryptoutil contains low-level utility functions to help implement cryptography. libsoftcrypto (OpenSolaris and Solaris Nevada only) implements several symmetric-key crypto algorithms in software, such as AES, RC4, and DES3, and the bignum library (used for RSA). libmd implements MD5, SHA, and SHA2 message digest algorithms" 4. Difference in T3 and T4 Diagram in this blog is good and self explanatory. Jeff's blog also highlights the differences  "The T4 servers have improved crypto acceleration, described at https://blogs.oracle.com/DanX/entry/sparc_t4_openssl_engine. It is "just built in" so administrators no longer have to assign crypto accelerator units to domains - it "just happens". Every physical or virtual CPU on a SPARC-T4 has full access to hardware based crypto acceleration at all times. .... For completeness sake, it's worth noting that the T4 adds more crypto algorithms, and accelerates Camelia, CRC32c, and more SHA-x." 5. About performance counters In this blog, performance counters are explained : "Note that unlike T3 and before, T4 crypto doesn't require kernel modules like ncp or n2cp, there is no visibility of crypto hardware with kstats or cryptoadm. T4 does provide hardware counters for crypto operations.  You can see these using cpustat: cpustat -c pic0=Instr_FGU_crypto 5 You can check the general crypto support of the hardware and OS with the command "isainfo -v". Since T4 crypto's implementation now allows direct userland access, there are no "crypto units" visible to cryptoadm.  " For more details refer Martin's blog as well. 6. How to turn off  SPARC T4 or Intel AES-NI crypto acceleration  I found this interesting blog from Darren about how to turn off  SPARC T4 or Intel AES-NI crypto acceleration. "One of the new Solaris 11 features of the linker/loader is the ability to have a single ELF object that has multiple different implementations of the same functions that are selected at runtime based on the capabilities of the machine.   The alternate to this is having the application coded to call getisax(2) system call and make the choice itself.  We use this functionality of the linker/loader when we build the userland libraries for the Solaris Cryptographic Framework (specifically libmd.so and libsoftcrypto.so) The Solaris linker/loader allows control of a lot of its functionality via environment variables, we can use that to control the version of the cryptographic functions we run.  To do this we simply export the LD_HWCAP environment variable with values that tell ld.so.1 to not select the HWCAP section matching certain features even if isainfo says they are present.  This will work for consumers of the Solaris Cryptographic Framework that use the Solaris PKCS#11 libraries or use libmd.so interfaces directly.  For SPARC T4 : export LD_HWCAP="-aes -des -md5 -sha256 -sha512 -mont -mpul" .. For Intel systems with AES-NI support: export LD_HWCAP="-aes"" Note that LD_HWCAP is explained in  http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23823_01/html/816-5165/ld.so.1-1.html "LD_HWCAP, LD_HWCAP_32, and LD_HWCAP_64 -  Identifies an alternative hardware capabilities value... A “-” prefix results in the capabilities that follow being removed from the alternative capabilities." 7. Whitepaper on SPARC T4 Servers—Optimized for End-to-End Data Center Computing This Whitepaper on SPARC T4 Servers—Optimized for End-to-End Data Center Computing explains more details.  It has DTrace scripts which may come in handy : "To ensure the hardware-assisted cryptographic acceleration is configured to use and working with the security scenarios, it is recommended to use the following Solaris DTrace script. #!/usr/sbin/dtrace -s pid$1:libsoftcrypto:yf*:entry, pid$target:libsoftcrypto:rsa*:entry, pid$1:libmd:yf*:entry { @[probefunc] = count(); } tick-1sec { printa(@ops); trunc(@ops); }" Note that I have slightly modified the D Script to have RSA "libsoftcrypto:rsa*:entry" as well as per recommendations from Chi-Chang Lin. 8. References http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/features/sparc-t4-announcement-494846.html http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/servers/sparc-enterprise/t-series/sparc-t4-1-ds-487858.pdf https://blogs.oracle.com/DanX/entry/sparc_t4_openssl_engine https://blogs.oracle.com/DanX/entry/where_s_the_crypto_libraries https://blogs.oracle.com/darren/entry/howto_turn_off_sparc_t4 http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23823_01/html/816-5165/ld.so.1-1.html   https://blogs.oracle.com/hardware/entry/unleash_the_power_of_cryptography https://blogs.oracle.com/cmt/entry/t4_crypto_cheat_sheet https://blogs.oracle.com/martinm/entry/t4_performance_counters_explained  https://blogs.oracle.com/jsavit/entry/no_mau_required_on_a http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/servers/sparc-enterprise/t-series/sparc-t4-business-wp-524472.pdf

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  • SQL SERVER – 4 Tips for ETL Software IDE Developers

    - by pinaldave
    In a previous blog, I introduced the notion of Semantic Types. To an end-user, a seamlessly integrated semantic typing engine significantly increases the ease of use of an ETL IDE (integrated development environment, or developer studio). This led me to think about other ease-of-use issues I have encountered while building ETL applications. When I get stumped while programming, I find myself asking the variations on these questions: “How do I…?” “Now what?” “Why isn’t this working?” “Why do I have to redo the work I just did?” It seems to me that a good ETL IDE will anticipate these questions and seek to answer them before they are even asked. So here are my tips to help software vendors build developer IDEs that actually make development easier. How do I…? While developing an ETL application, have you ever asked yourself: “How do I set up the connection to my SQL Server database?”,“How do I import my table definitions from Access?”, etc. An easy answer might be “read the manual” but sometimes product manuals are not robust or easily accessible. So, integrating robust how-to instructions directly into your ETLstudio would help users get the information they need at the time they need it. Now what? IDEs in general know where you last clicked or performed an action using an input device such as a keyboard; so they should be able to reasonably predict the design context you are in and suggest the next steps accordingly. Context-sensitive suggestions based on the state of the user’s work will help users move forward in ETL application development. Why isn’t this working? Or why do I have to wait till I compile to be told about a critical design issue? If an ETL IDE is smart enough to signal to users what in their design structures is left to be completed or has been completed incorrectly, then the developer can spend much less time in the designàcompileàerror-correct loop. Just-in-time validation helps users detect and correct programming errors earlier in the ETL development life cycle. Why do I have to redo the work I just did? In ETL development, schemas, transformation rules, connectivity objects, etc., can be reused in various situations. Using mouse-clicks to build and manage libraries of reusable design objects implies that the application development effort should decrease over time and as the library acquires more objects. I met a great company at SQL Pass that is trying to address many of these usability issues. Check them out at www.expressor-software.com. What other ease-of-use suggestions do you have for ETL software vendors? Please post your valuable comments. ?Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Best Practices, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: ETL

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  • AuthnRequest Settings in OIF / SP

    - by Damien Carru
    In this article, I will list the various OIF/SP settings that affect how an AuthnRequest message is created in OIF in a Federation SSO flow. The AuthnRequest message is used by an SP to start a Federation SSO operation and to indicate to the IdP how the operation should be executed: How the user should be challenged at the IdP Whether or not the user should be challenged at the IdP, even if a session already exists at the IdP for this user Which NameID format should be requested in the SAML Assertion Which binding (Artifact or HTTP-POST) should be requested from the IdP to send the Assertion Which profile should be used by OIF/SP to send the AuthnRequest message Enjoy the reading! Protocols The SAML 2.0, SAML 1.1 and OpenID 2.0 protocols define different message elements and rules that allow an administrator to influence the Federation SSO flows in different manners, when the SP triggers an SSO operation: SAML 2.0 allows extensive customization via the AuthnRequest message SAML 1.1 does not allow any customization, since the specifications do not define an authentication request message OpenID 2.0 allows for some customization, mainly via the OpenID 2.0 extensions such as PAPE or UI SAML 2.0 OIF/SP allows the customization of the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message for the following elements: ForceAuthn: Boolean indicating whether or not the IdP should force the user for re-authentication, even if the user has still a valid session By default set to false IsPassive Boolean indicating whether or not the IdP is allowed to interact with the user as part of the Federation SSO operation. If false, the Federation SSO operation might result in a failure with the NoPassive error code, because the IdP will not have been able to identify the user By default set to false RequestedAuthnContext Element indicating how the user should be challenged at the IdP If the SP requests a Federation Authentication Method unknown to the IdP or for which the IdP is not configured, then the Federation SSO flow will result in a failure with the NoAuthnContext error code By default missing NameIDPolicy Element indicating which NameID format the IdP should include in the SAML Assertion If the SP requests a NameID format unknown to the IdP or for which the IdP is not configured, then the Federation SSO flow will result in a failure with the InvalidNameIDPolicy error code If missing, the IdP will generally use the default NameID format configured for this SP partner at the IdP By default missing ProtocolBinding Element indicating which SAML binding should be used by the IdP to redirect the user to the SP with the SAML Assertion Set to Artifact or HTTP-POST By default set to HTTP-POST OIF/SP also allows the administrator to configure the server to: Set which binding should be used by OIF/SP to redirect the user to the IdP with the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message: Redirect or HTTP-POST By default set to Redirect Set which binding should be used by OIF/SP to redirect the user to the IdP during logout with SAML 2.0 Logout messages: Redirect or HTTP-POST By default set to Redirect SAML 1.1 The SAML 1.1 specifications do not define a message for the SP to send to the IdP when a Federation SSO operation is started. As such, there is no capability to configure OIF/SP on how to affect the start of the Federation SSO flow. OpenID 2.0 OpenID 2.0 defines several extensions that can be used by the SP/RP to affect how the Federation SSO operation will take place: OpenID request: mode: String indicating if the IdP/OP can visually interact with the user checkid_immediate does not allow the IdP/OP to interact with the user checkid_setup allows user interaction By default set to checkid_setup PAPE Extension: max_auth_age : Integer indicating in seconds the maximum amount of time since when the user authenticated at the IdP. If MaxAuthnAge is bigger that the time since when the user last authenticated at the IdP, then the user must be re-challenged. OIF/SP will set this attribute to 0 if the administrator configured ForceAuthn to true, otherwise this attribute won't be set Default missing preferred_auth_policies Contains a Federation Authentication Method Element indicating how the user should be challenged at the IdP By default missing Only specified in the OpenID request if the IdP/OP supports PAPE in XRDS, if OpenID discovery is used. UI Extension Popup mode Boolean indicating the popup mode is enabled for the Federation SSO By default missing Language Preference String containing the preferred language, set based on the browser's language preferences. By default missing Icon: Boolean indicating if the icon feature is enabled. In that case, the IdP/OP would look at the SP/RP XRDS to determine how to retrieve the icon By default missing Only specified in the OpenID request if the IdP/OP supports UI Extenstion in XRDS, if OpenID discovery is used. ForceAuthn and IsPassive WLST Command OIF/SP provides the WLST configureIdPAuthnRequest() command to set: ForceAuthn as a boolean: In a SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest, the ForceAuthn field will be set to true or false In an OpenID 2.0 request, if ForceAuthn in the configuration was set to true, then the max_auth_age field of the PAPE request will be set to 0, otherwise, max_auth_age won't be set IsPassive as a boolean: In a SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest, the IsPassive field will be set to true or false In an OpenID 2.0 request, if IsPassive in the configuration was set to true, then the mode field of the OpenID request will be set to checkid_immediate, otherwise set to checkid_setup Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso">   <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>   <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> Let's configure OIF/SP for that IdP Partner, so that the SP will require the IdP to re-challenge the user, even if the user is already authenticated: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the configureIdPAuthnRequest() command:configureIdPAuthnRequest(partner="AcmeIdP", forceAuthn="true") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After the changes, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ForceAuthn="true" ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso">   <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>   <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> To display or delete the ForceAuthn/IsPassive settings, perform the following operatons: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the configureIdPAuthnRequest() command: To display the ForceAuthn/IsPassive settings on the partnerconfigureIdPAuthnRequest(partner="AcmeIdP", displayOnly="true") To delete the ForceAuthn/IsPassive settings from the partnerconfigureIdPAuthnRequest(partner="AcmeIdP", delete="true") Exit the WLST environment:exit() Requested Fed Authn Method In my earlier "Fed Authentication Method Requests in OIF / SP" article, I discussed how OIF/SP could be configured to request a specific Federation Authentication Method from the IdP when starting a Federation SSO operation, by setting elements in the SSO request message. WLST Command The OIF WLST commands that can be used are: setIdPPartnerProfileRequestAuthnMethod() which will configure the requested Federation Authentication Method in a specific IdP Partner Profile, and accepts the following parameters: partnerProfile: name of the IdP Partner Profile authnMethod: the Federation Authentication Method to request displayOnly: an optional parameter indicating if the method should display the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it delete: an optional parameter indicating if the method should delete the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it setIdPPartnerRequestAuthnMethod() which will configure the specified IdP Partner entry with the requested Federation Authentication Method, and accepts the following parameters: partner: name of the IdP Partner authnMethod: the Federation Authentication Method to request displayOnly: an optional parameter indicating if the method should display the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it delete: an optional parameter indicating if the method should delete the current requested Federation Authentication Method instead of setting it This applies to SAML 2.0 and OpenID 2.0 protocols. See the "Fed Authentication Method Requests in OIF / SP" article for more information. Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso">   <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>   <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> Let's configure OIF/SP for that IdP Partner, so that the SP will request the IdP to use a mechanism mapped to the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:X509 Federation Authentication Method to authenticate the user: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setIdPPartnerRequestAuthnMethod() command:setIdPPartnerRequestAuthnMethod("AcmeIdP", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:X509") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After the changes, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso">   <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>   <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/>   <samlp:RequestedAuthnContext Comparison="minimum">      <saml:AuthnContextClassRef xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion">         urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:X509      </saml:AuthnContextClassRef>   </samlp:RequestedAuthnContext></samlp:AuthnRequest> NameID Format The SAML 2.0 protocol allows for the SP to request from the IdP a specific NameID format to be used when the Assertion is issued by the IdP. Note: SAML 1.1 and OpenID 2.0 do not provide such a mechanism Configuring OIF The administrator can configure OIF/SP to request a NameID format in the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest via: The OAM Administration Console, in the IdP Partner entry The OIF WLST setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command that will modify the IdP Partner configuration OAM Administration Console To configure the requested NameID format via the OAM Administration Console, perform the following steps: Go to the OAM Administration Console: http(s)://oam-admin-host:oam-admin-port/oamconsole Navigate to Identity Federation -> Service Provider Administration Open the IdP Partner you wish to modify In the Authentication Request NameID Format dropdown box with one of the values None The NameID format will be set Default Email Address The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress X.509 Subject The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:X509SubjectName Windows Name Qualifier The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:WindowsDomainQualifiedName Kerberos The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:kerberos Transient The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:transient Unspecified The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:unspecified Custom In this case, a field would appear allowing the administrator to indicate the custom NameID format to use The NameID format will be set to the specified format Persistent The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:persistent I selected Email Address in this example Save WLST Command To configure the requested NameID format via the OIF WLST setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command, perform the following steps: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command:setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat("PARTNER", "FORMAT", customFormat="CUSTOM") Replace PARTNER with the IdP Partner name Replace FORMAT with one of the following: orafed-none The NameID format will be set Default orafed-emailaddress The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress orafed-x509 The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:X509SubjectName orafed-windowsnamequalifier The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:WindowsDomainQualifiedName orafed-kerberos The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:kerberos orafed-transient The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:transient orafed-unspecified The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:unspecified orafed-custom In this case, a field would appear allowing the administrator to indicate the custom NameID format to use The NameID format will be set to the specified format orafed-persistent The NameID format will be set urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:persistent customFormat will need to be set if the FORMAT is set to orafed-custom An example would be:setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat("AcmeIdP", "orafed-emailaddress") Exit the WLST environment:exit() Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso">   <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> After the changes performed either via the OAM Administration Console or via the OIF WLST setIdPPartnerNameIDFormat() command where Email Address would be requested as the NameID Format, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ForceAuthn="false" IsPassive="false" ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso">   <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:NameIDPolicy Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress" AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> Protocol Binding The SAML 2.0 specifications define a way for the SP to request which binding should be used by the IdP to redirect the user to the SP with the SAML 2.0 Assertion: the ProtocolBinding attribute indicates the binding the IdP should use. It is set to: Either urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST for HTTP-POST Or urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:Artifact for Artifact The SAML 2.0 specifications also define different ways to redirect the user from the SP to the IdP with the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message, as the SP can send the message: Either via HTTP Redirect Or HTTP POST (Other bindings can theoretically be used such as Artifact, but these are not used in practice) Configuring OIF OIF can be configured: Via the OAM Administration Console or the OIF WLST configureSAMLBinding() command to set the Assertion Response binding to be used Via the OIF WLST configureSAMLBinding() command to indicate how the SAML AuthnRequest message should be sent Note: the binding for sending the SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest message will also be used to send the SAML 2.0 LogoutRequest and LogoutResponse messages. OAM Administration Console To configure the SSO Response/Assertion Binding via the OAM Administration Console, perform the following steps: Go to the OAM Administration Console: http(s)://oam-admin-host:oam-admin-port/oamconsole Navigate to Identity Federation -> Service Provider Administration Open the IdP Partner you wish to modify Check the "HTTP POST SSO Response Binding" box to request the IdP to return the SSO Response via HTTP POST, otherwise uncheck it to request artifact Save WLST Command To configure the SSO Response/Assertion Binding as well as the AuthnRequest Binding via the OIF WLST configureSAMLBinding() command, perform the following steps: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the configureSAMLBinding() command:configureSAMLBinding("PARTNER", "PARTNER_TYPE", binding, ssoResponseBinding="httppost") Replace PARTNER with the Partner name Replace PARTNER_TYPE with the Partner type (idp or sp) Replace binding with the binding to be used to send the AuthnRequest and LogoutRequest/LogoutResponse messages (should be httpredirect in most case; default) httppost for HTTP-POST binding httpredirect for HTTP-Redirect binding Specify optionally ssoResponseBinding to indicate how the SSO Assertion should be sent back httppost for HTTP-POST binding artifactfor for Artifact binding An example would be:configureSAMLBinding("AcmeIdP", "idp", "httpredirect", ssoResponseBinding="httppost") Exit the WLST environment:exit() Test In this test, OIF/SP is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 IdP Partner, with the OOTB configuration which requests HTTP-POST from the IdP to send the SSO Assertion. Based on this setup, when OIF/SP starts a Federation SSO flow, the following SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest would be generated: <samlp:AuthnRequest ProtocolBinding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" ID="id-E4BOT7lwbYK56lO57dBaqGUFq01WJSjAHiSR60Q4" Version="2.0" IssueInstant="2014-04-01T21:39:14Z" Destination="https://acme.com/saml20/sso">   <saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">https://sp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>   <samlp:NameIDPolicy AllowCreate="true"/></samlp:AuthnRequest> In the next article, I will cover the various crypto configuration properties in OIF that are used to affect the Federation SSO exchanges.Cheers,Damien Carru

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  • Refreshing Your PC Won’t Help: Why Bloatware is Still a Problem on Windows 8

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Bloatware is still a big problem on new Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs. Some websites will tell you that you can easily get rid of manufacturer-installed bloatware with Windows 8′s Reset feature, but they’re generally wrong. This junk software often turns the process of powering on your new PC from what could be a delightful experience into a tedious slog, forcing you to spend hours cleaning up your new PC before you can enjoy it. Why Refreshing Your PC (Probably) Won’t Help Manufacturers install software along with Windows on their new PCs. In addition to hardware drivers that allow the PC’s hardware to work properly, they install more questionable things like trial antivirus software and other nagware. Much of this software runs at boot, cluttering the system tray and slowing down boot times, often dramatically. Software companies pay computer manufacturers to include this stuff. It’s installed to make the PC manufacturer money at the cost of making the Windows computer worse for actual users. Windows 8 includes “Refresh Your PC” and “Reset Your PC” features that allow Windows users to quickly get their computers back to a fresh state. It’s essentially a quick, streamlined way of reinstalling Windows.  If you install Windows 8 or 8.1 yourself, the Refresh operation will give your PC a clean Windows system without any additional third-party software. However, Microsoft allows computer manufacturers to customize their Refresh images. In other words, most computer manufacturers will build their drivers, bloatware, and other system customizations into the Refresh image. When you Refresh your computer, you’ll just get back to the factory-provided system complete with bloatware. It’s possible that some computer manufacturers aren’t building bloatware into their refresh images in this way. It’s also possible that, when Windows 8 came out, some computer manufacturer didn’t realize they could do this and that refreshing a new PC would strip the bloatware. However, on most Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs, you’ll probably see bloatware come back when you refresh your PC. It’s easy to understand how PC manufacturers do this. You can create your own Refresh images on Windows 8 and 8.1 with just a simple command, replacing Microsoft’s image with a customized one. Manufacturers can install their own refresh images in the same way. Microsoft doesn’t lock down the Refresh feature. Desktop Bloatware is Still Around, Even on Tablets! Not only is typical Windows desktop bloatware not gone, it has tagged along with Windows as it moves to new form factors. Every Windows tablet currently on the market — aside from Microsoft’s own Surface and Surface 2 tablets — runs on a standard Intel x86 chip. This means that every Windows 8 and 8.1 tablet you see in stores has a full desktop with the capability to run desktop software. Even if that tablet doesn’t come with a keyboard, it’s likely that the manufacturer has preinstalled bloatware on the tablet’s desktop. Yes, that means that your Windows tablet will be slower to boot and have less memory because junk and nagging software will be on its desktop and in its system tray. Microsoft considers tablets to be PCs, and PC manufacturers love installing their bloatware. If you pick up a Windows tablet, don’t be surprised if you have to deal with desktop bloatware on it. Microsoft Surfaces and Signature PCs Microsoft is now selling their own Surface PCs that they built themselves — they’re now a “devices and services” company after all, not a software company. One of the nice things about Microsoft’s Surface PCs is that they’re free of the typical bloatware. Microsoft won’t take money from Norton to include nagging software that worsens the experience. If you pick up a Surface device that provides Windows 8.1 and 8 as Microsoft intended it — or install a fresh Windows 8.1 or 8 system — you won’t see any bloatware. Microsoft is also continuing their Signature program. New PCs purchased from Microsoft’s official stores are considered “Signature PCs” and don’t have the typical bloatware. For example, the same laptop could be full of bloatware in a traditional computer store and clean, without the nasty bloatware when purchased from a Microsoft Store. Microsoft will also continue to charge you $99 if you want them to remove your computer’s bloatware for you — that’s the more questionable part of the Signature program. Windows 8 App Bloatware is an Improvement There’s a new type of bloatware on new Windows 8 systems, which is thankfully less harmful. This is bloatware in the form of included “Windows 8-style”, “Store-style”, or “Modern” apps in the new, tiled interface. For example, Amazon may pay a computer manufacturer to include the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store. (The manufacturer may also just receive a cut of book sales for including it. We’re not sure how the revenue sharing works — but it’s clear PC manufacturers are getting money from Amazon.) The manufacturer will then install the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store by default. This included software is technically some amount of clutter, but it doesn’t cause the problems older types of bloatware does. It won’t automatically load and delay your computer’s startup process, clutter your system tray, or take up memory while you’re using your computer. For this reason, a shift to including new-style apps as bloatware is a definite improvement over older styles of bloatware. Unfortunately, this type of bloatware has not replaced traditional desktop bloatware, and new Windows PCs will generally have both. Windows RT is Immune to Typical Bloatware, But… Microsoft’s Windows RT can’t run Microsoft desktop software, so it’s immune to traditional bloatware. Just as you can’t install your own desktop programs on it, the Windows RT device’s manufacturer can’t install their own desktop bloatware. While Windows RT could be an antidote to bloatware, this advantage comes at the cost of being able to install any type of desktop software at all. Windows RT has also seemingly failed — while a variety of manufacturers came out with their own Windows RT devices when Windows 8 was first released, they’ve all since been withdrawn from the market. Manufacturers who created Windows RT devices have criticized it in the media and stated they have no plans to produce any future Windows RT devices. The only Windows RT devices still on the market are Microsoft’s Surface (originally named Surface RT) and Surface 2. Nokia is also coming out with their own Windows RT tablet, but they’re in the process of being purchased by Microsoft. In other words, Windows RT just isn’t a factor when it comes to bloatware — you wouldn’t get a Windows RT device unless you purchased a Surface, but those wouldn’t come with bloatware anyway. Removing Bloatware or Reinstalling Windows 8.1 While bloatware is still a problem on new Windows systems and the Refresh option probably won’t help you, you can still eliminate bloatware in the traditional way. Bloatware can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel or with a dedicated removal tool like PC Decrapifier, which tries to automatically uninstall the junk for you. You can also do what Windows geeks have always tended to do with new computers — reinstall Windows 8 or 8.1 from scratch with installation media from Microsoft. You’ll get a clean Windows system and you can install only the hardware drivers and other software you need. Unfortunately, bloatware is still a big problem for Windows PCs. Windows 8 tries to do some things to address bloatware, but it ultimately comes up short. Most Windows PCs sold in most stores to most people will still have the typical bloatware slowing down the boot process, wasting memory, and adding clutter. Image Credit: LG on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Wilson Hui on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Vernon Chan on Flickr     

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  • Best-selling Author on Servlets and JSP, Marty Hall, to Keynote at GIDS 2010

    Hey Guys,Author of More Servlets and JSP, Marty Hall is coming to Bangalore this April to speak on Choosing an Ajax/JavaScript Toolkit: A Comparison of the Most Popular JavaScript Libraries, Pure Java Ajax: An Overview of GWT 2.0, Integrated Ajax Support in JSF 2.0 and Ajax Support in the Prototype JavaScript Library. You can get more information on developersummit dot com...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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